Once again, I beg your indulgence as I find myself at the epicenter of a number of important actions and responsibilities which all seem to be coming due, to a certain extent, this week!

To give you a brief idea of just some of those items...

We are about to announce a major initiative over at Velvet Revolution. This has been in the works for some time, has been rather complicated to get all of the pieces in shape, and for the time being I am responsible for a fair deal of getting that effort launched. It has distracted me from more vigorous reporting here at BRAD BLOG over the last several weeks, but I believe it will all be well worth it. So I continue to beg your indulgence in that regard. More on that very soon now...

I have also been working with a group of bloggers and other interested parties helping to organize an initiative that we hope will bring bloggers and mainstream media folks together to some extent, while helping to amplify the message and work of bloggers who are doing extraordinary work on various exposés which are not receiving the wide coverage they deserve. The core of that effort will be weekly conference calls (press conferences of a sort) with a presentation from a guest blogger, and questions/participation from other progressive bloggers and members of the media.

Our first "pilot" call will be tomorrow with AmericaBLOG's John Aravosis on the Gannon/Guckert scandal. In the next week or so, I will be the featured guest to discuss developments in the Clint Curtis matter.

Space on these calls is limited, so if you have a progressive blog or are a member of the media who may not have received my note on the above via my Media Alert mailing list, please contact me via email if you'd like to participate and I will forward your information to the credentials committee. (Representatives from Talon News will receive automatic credentialling).

There are several other items in play keeping me from blogging as much as I'd like. Amongst them, I am working on a number of Clint Curtis-related stories in the background, which are being held up --- surprise! --- by some folks who seem less than interested in some of this news getting out. But the work continues, and when the stories are verified and ready to roll here, they shall.

Lastly...I'll be making a presentation LIVE this coming Sunday in Santa Monica as a guest on a panel discussion as part of an exciting event being put together by CitizensAct.org (and co-sponsored by VR and PDA).

Use the link above for more info, to purchase tickets ($10, but hopefully nobody will be turned away), and download a flyer to distribute if you're in the CA area. If you are, please come on by and say hello afterwards. We're told that we'll all get out in time to catch the most important event in the world (in this town), the Oscars, which are on Sunday night.

That's some explanation of all the balls I'm attempting to juggle at once. So while I'm doing that, please feel free to consider this an Open Thread with, as always, much more to come as soon as time allows...

Great to hear from you. I've been a bit silent myself as I am speaking at a hearing at our State House tomorrow to promote a bill with a verifiable paper trail and 2 percent audit. Our board of elections and a number of politicians are stalling it in favor of NO paper trail, encryption and checking votes on the internet some how. Then if our bill is passed our governor is going to try and veto it, even though SAIC was hired to test it and hacked into the Board of Elections website in 5 minutes.

Someone's palm got greased, because even though they were able to hack into the State Board of Elections computer, they still said "Diebold's system is safe."

I have been preparing my testimony and will be testifying with TrueVoteMD tomorrow.

Something real dirty is going on. There is no way this is not intentional.

You're a busy bee but that cross-pollination will pay off in the long run. Keep a'buzzin'...

Re: JPENTZ
Wish you could make it clear that open and checkable elections are the primary element of American democracy. Untraceable voting is the key element of totalitarian systems (like the USSR) and other dictatorships. Straight up ask the recalcitrant legislators and the gov if they favor totalitarianism and secret elections; put them on the wrong side, which is where they are anyway. Just ask them: who are you and why are you against American democracy. This is not an issue of compromise.

Did anyone catch his act in Germany today? He's trying to thank Gerhard Schroder for cooperation on some nuclear issue, so he says. "I'd like to thank...(pause as he forgets Schroder's name), my friends (meaning Schoder)...for help in fighting NOOK-U-LER weapons."

With as many coaches as he has, is it even remotely possible nobody has told this moron how to pronounce the word "nuclear" yet?

Maryland. I believe the public can come. I don't know on the press for this hearing. it may be on our local C-Span.

It will be recorded and was thinking about maybe writing an article myself but don't know if it can be done in such a timely manner as to be published in the Baltimore Sun.

OMG on bu$h? It's FREAKIN HIGH NOON on CNN's Website with Putin. The Nazi Cowboy is at it again. OH I MUST QUOTE THIS bu4shit:

"I expressed some concerns at the European Union yesterday about some of the decisions, such as freedom of the press, that our mutual friend has made," he told reporters during a meeting in Germany with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"Earlier Wednesday, Bush said he would raise concerns about the health of Russia's democracy when he meets with his counterpart.

"I expressed some concerns at the European Union yesterday about some of the decisions, such as freedom of the press, that our mutual friend has made," he told reporters during a meeting in Germany with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. "And I look forward to talking to him about his decision-making process."

re comment #1: LOL ... So today you're "Joey"? Well ok, "Joey", this is the third time you've asked the same question using three different names ... so apparently you are having serious difficulties. See if you can follow this:

[1] Yes, liberals care about freedom. But a rigged election in an occupied country doesn't have anything to do with freedom. It has more to do with plunder. Please read these two articles --- Mother Lode and Baghdad Year Zero --- if you don't understand why.

[2] Brad was away that weekend. Fin and I were guest-blogging here and we talked about the Iraqi election quite a bit.

[3] Most of the discussion took place on this thread. Fin also blogged an item about the election, the day before it happened, and that is here.

When the MSM can't provide the content - hey, that's why they adopted the advertising tactic, so they would be free to pubilsh real content once upon a time - but now the content is pablum. The blogs are producing the real content - and content drives the bus. And this is a brand spanking new bus, a new medium (albeit 25 years old, but maturity is about reach and recognition wrt this).

You are all so darned clever - carry on, keep fighting. I'm thrilled to listen in. Bush is a moronic bore. No one in the world cares two hoots what he says or thinks - least of all Putin. He thinks NOOK-U-LER is "American cute" and cool (the idiot).

JPenz - When you're right and it's important, failure is not an option. No matter what they try to do, make certain they realize you will not be defeated - not tomorrow, or the next day, or ever. Thank you for your action on behalf of democracy everywhere in the world.

Memo to Joey, who wondered why no blogs have appeared on the Iraqi election: The candidates were never announced, and whatever issues they were running on were never discussed. That isn't a real election, Joey...or whatever your real name is.
It's a dog and pony show with big press coverage.

Memo to Brad: I e-mailed you a satirical resume for White House press credentialization. I'd also love to be considered for your new writing group. My (real) literary credentials available on request.

Well off I go to the State House. BTW, even a Blue State's government is crooked. No matter how much evidence is put before our politicians, no matter WHAT the people want or say, they are stonewalling paper. Truevote MD has been fighting this for 2 years.

Have you not considered that since God speaks directly through our President, it is we who have been mispronouncing "nuclear"? Remember, no neo-CONster wastes time on other people's reality when he can create one of his own!

I don't remember now where I picked up this bit of info - very possibly here - but I gather that at least one American dictionary (Webster's?, American Heritage?) has now included "noo-kyoo-ler" as an acceptible alternative pronunciation. Never mind where the consonants and vowels appear in a word; that's just spelling, and we all know how nit-picky THAT is!

Yeah, Dredd, you pink-lover, you. That drawing is considered in some quarters to be in bad taste. However, we know you can't rewrite the script (only the administrator-god can do that) so we'll be lenient. Won't we, Peggy?

Well, Peg, considering that Bush is president of the most powerful nation on Earth, and that he's been concerned with "nook-you-ler" weapons in Iran and at one point claimed Niger was selling uranium to Iraq for potential "nook-you-ler" weapon manufacture, I think we're entitled to hear him use the preferred pronunciation.

If he were talking about the nucleus of an atom, would it be O.K. for him to say "nook-you-luss?" I think that would be "ridic-leous," frankly.

It's not that Bush makes an idle mistake here. After all, J.F.K. first pronounced Laos "Lay-oss," possibly because he thought "Oss" was a movie actress he wanted to sleep with. But once he knew better, he pronounced it "Louse," which is correct. Bush isn't only stupid, he's stubborn. It's not possible that he hasn't been corrected on this 50 times by his own people. He just doesn't care.

I've heard "noo-kyoo-lus" just as sickeningly often. I know it's because the B-word just cannot be bothered to change his ways. My point was that he expects, and gets, the capitulation and revision of real authorities.

KestrelBrighteyes #50 educate me ... I thought it was done on the phone while talking with his wife ... how can that be conspiritorial?

Winter Patriot #51 Right on bro. I just noticed the Gannon story hit the yahoo news menu. Link here. This menu is usually reserved for big stories. It links to an LA Times article ... but on the same menu are BIG stories like the Pope operation, bomb in Isreal, etc.

Thank you bloggers and thank you MSM to the extent you came around on this one.